"Because We Care So Deeply About It": Dimensions and Tensions of Youth Worker Persistence

• In Event: 81.033 - MTCC Roundtable Session 38
  In Roundtable Session: 81.033-2 - Negotiating Everyday Spaces: Teen Leadership, Youth Workers, and Learner Assets

Abstract

While low salaries and emotional burnout often lead to early exits from youth work (Yohalem & Pittman, 2006), scarce research explores factors that lead to longer commitments to this field. What encourages experience youth workers to persist in the field? Utilizing narrative inquiry and analysis, I draw on in-depth qualitative interviews with 20 practitioners to elicit reflections on occupational histories (Goodson & Sikes, 2001). Preliminary findings suggest that persistence in youth work is connected to professional and moral support, a sense of place-based and community callings, and deep-seated individual convictions. This study seeks to deepen understandings of occupational identity in this field, inform funding, policy and organizational practice to foster long-term commitments.

Author

• Deepa Sriya Vasudevan, Wellesley College